During the two years I was abroad, I traveled on foot over six thousand miles; by rail, six thousand, and on the water, eight thousand. The time spent in preaching the Gospel, with all its hardships and privations, was the happiest of my life. I bore my testimony to thousands, and I know that the Lord blessed my labors.
I thank God, my heavenly Father, that I was permitted to fill my mission, and to return home to meet those who are dear to me by the ties of nature. I can still bear a faithful testimony that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to earth, with all its powers, gifts and ordinances, through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Franklin Horton Snow.
CHAPTER XLIX.
Discourse by Elder Lorenzo Snow, delivered in a meeting of the St. George Stake of Zion, in the Temple, April 5th, 1877; reported by George F. Gibbs.—Necessity for effort.—What the Lord said to Oliver Cowdery.—Regulation of temporal affairs.—Consecration and stewardship.—Preparation for building in Jackson County.—The United Order.—Plural marriage.—Responsibility of Presidents.—How confidence is created.—The necessity of its cultivation.—Desires for the future.
In occupying the time this morning, I wish, in the first place, to call your attention to the fact that we are Latter-day Saints, or at least ought to be; and that as such we are dependent upon the Lord for our instruction. This is in accordance with our faith—that we have to look to Him for assistance under all circumstances, in all places, in all our affairs in life, and in all matters pertaining to our advancement in the principles of godliness.
Assembled together as we are this morning, it is very necessary that we ask the Lord for His Spirit, the spirit of inspiration, to rest upon us as speakers and as hearers, that we may be enabled to comprehend what may be spoken, and that it may be adapted to our individual needs. It is impossible to progress in the principles of truth—to increase in heavenly knowledge, except we exercise our reasoning faculties and exert ourselves in a proper manner. We have an instance recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants of a misunderstanding on the part of Oliver Cowdery, touching this principle. The Lord promised him the gift to translate ancient records. Like many of us to-day, he had misconceptions in regard to the exercise of the gift. He thought all that was necessary for him to do, inasmuch as this gift had been promised him of God, was to allow his mind to wait in idleness without effort, until it should operate spontaneously. But when these records were placed before him, no knowledge was communicated; they still continued sealed, as it were, for no power to translate rested upon him.
Although the gift to translate had been conferred, he could not prosecute the work, simply because he failed to exert himself before God, with the view of developing the gift within him, and he was greatly disappointed; and the Lord in His goodness and mercy informed him of his mistake, using the following language:
"Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you when you took no thought, save it was to ask me; but, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right; and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you," etc.